OCHI WWW.OCHIGALLERY.COM YASMINE NASSER DIAZ Born in Chicago, IL Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2021 For Your Eyes Only, NADA House, Ochi Projects, Governors Island, NY For Your Eyes Only, University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, Ann Arbor, MI 2020 solf powers, Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA soft powers, Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, MI 2019 Dirty Laundry, Habibi House, Detroit, MI 2018 Exit Strategies, Women’s Center for Creative Work, Los Angeles, CA GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2021 Converging Lines: Tracing the Artistic Lineage of the Arab Diaspora in the U.S, Middle East Institute, Washington, D.C. The New Contemporaries Vol 2, Residency Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2020 If Everything Was An Outrage, Track 16, Los Angeles, CA New Radicalism: The Radical New Voices from the Middle-East, North Africa and her Diasporas, ZoHo, Rotterdam, Netherlands Title TBD, Arab Amp, Pieter Space, Los Angeles, CA 2019 On Echoes of Invisible Hearts, Station Beirut, Lebanon A Manifest of Ipseities, 333 Midland, Detroit, MI A Store Show, ODD ARK, Los Angeles, CA With a Little Help From My Friends, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA The Binder of Women, The Pit, Los Angeles, CA Singing in the Dark, Art Salon Chinatown, Los Angeles, CA Overlapping Tension, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA Tell Me A Story And I’ll Sing You A Song , Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA OCHI WWW.OCHIGALLERY.COM CO/LAB 4, Torrance Art Museum, with ODD ARK Welcome Home, AALA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2018 Familiar Friends, Durden and Ray, Los Angeles, CA On Echoes of Invisible Hearts, The Poetry Project Space, Berlin, Germany Heat Wave, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA Surrogate, Pieter Performance Space, Los Angeles, CA plants, Art in the Park, Arroyo Seco, Los Angeles, CA Radiant, Blue Roof Studios, Los Angeles, CA Good Smoke/Good Poke, 0-0 LA, Los Angeles, CA Feminism Now, Grafiska Sallskapet, Stockholm, Sweden This Is Awkward, ESMoA, El Segundo, CA Disparate Sources, Keystone Art Space, Los Angeles, CA 2017 Office Hours, The Main Museum, Los Angeles, CA Her Intuition, Brainworks Gallery, Los Angeles, CA On The Other Side: at land's edge 2017 Fellows Exhibition, Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA One Woman Shows, Pieter Space, Los Angeles, CA State of the Union, Brainworks Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Uprise, Untitled Space, New York, NY 2016 Women on the Fence, Mothership Festival, Desert Hot Springs, CA LA/Berlin, Mission Workshop, Los Angeles, CA Face Time, Maiden L.A. pop-up event in Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA Viva La Muxer, Werkatz, Los Angeles, CA 2015 Latina/o Queer Arts & Film Festival, Advocate & Gochis Galleries, Los Angeles, CA 2010 Abriendo La Boca, EntreyArte, Buenos Aires, Argentina AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS 2020 Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant Creative Capital Award Semi-Finalist Rema Hort Mann Foundation, Emerging Artist Grant Nominee OCHI WWW.OCHIGALLERY.COM 2019 Puffin Foundation Project Grant for Dirty Laundry California Community Foundation, Visual Artist Fellowship Rema Hort Mann Foundation, Emerging Artist Grant Nominee SELECTED PRESS & PUBLICATIONS 2019 Refinery29, "15 Of Our Favorite Contemporary Artists Get Real About Making It In The Art World,” Cait Munro, August 8, 2019 HyperAllergic, “Yemeni Artists Reflect on Their War-Torn Homeland,” Lizzy Vartanian Collier, April 24, 2019 Jdeed Magazine, Issue 4, “Eye on Yemeni Art,” Cynthia Jreige, 2019 Contemporary Class, “How Yemeni Artists Are Highlighting Displacement," Katie Silcox, February 2019 2018 The Billboard Magazine, “Ten Artists We Should Be Watching,” Carly Defilippo, October, 2018 ArtMejo, “On Echoes of Invisible Hearts: Narratives of Yemeni Displacement,” Tariq Shahrour, October 15, 2018 The Coastal Post, “Yasmine Diaz - Exit Strategies at The Women’s Center for Creative Work,” Alexis Alicette Bolter, July 26, 2018 Los Angeles Times, “Datebook: Shots of old Route 66, dreamlike paintings and garments fashioned from paper”, Carolina Miranda, July 12, 2018 Artillery Magazine, “Yasmine Diaz,” Annabel Osberg, July 11, 2018 Feminist Magazine Radio, (live interview) “Exit Strategies,” Lynn Harris Ballen, June 19, 2018 What Artists Listen To, (podcast) Episode 13, “Yasmine Diaz,” Pia Pack, June 12, 2018 Vogue, The Wing’s Curator Falls Asleep to Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Dreams of Rearranging Art, Carmen Rosy Hall, May 15, 2018 Feminist Crush, (podcast) Season 3, Episode 13, “Yasmine Diaz,” Kitty Lindsay, April 20, 2018 2017 Kolaj Magazine, “One Way or Another: A Profile of Yasmine Diaz,” Issue 21, Aryana Gazza Hessami Hera Collective, “Yasmine Diaz, Artist,” December 19, 2017 Art and Cake, “Brainworks Gallery Celebrates the Confidence of Her Intuition,” Genie Davis, May 29, 2017 Fabrik, “Brainworks Gallery presents ‘Her Intuition,’” April 13, 2017 OCHI WWW.OCHIGALLERY.COM RESIDENCIES & FELLOWSHIPS 2020 Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, MI 2019 Vermont Studio Center; Johnson, VT Habibi’s Artist Residency, Detroit, MI 2018 Women’s Center for Creative Work, Artist in Residence, Los Angeles, CA 2017 at land's edge Fellowship, Los Angeles, CA 2010 Entre y Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina ARTIST TALKS, PRESENTATIONS & WORKSHOPS 2019 Paul Brach Visiting Artist Lecture, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA Policy and Paletas, California Immigrant Policy Center Guest Lecture, California State Summer School for the Arts eib), Habibi House, Detroit) ﺑﯾﻊ Let’s Talk About Artist Talk, Room Project, Detroit Feminism & Love, in conversation with Alexis Bolter, The Situation Room, Los Angeles, CA Rip Roar, Other Books, Los Angeles, CA, with Akina Cox Artist Talk, Marlborough School, Los Angeles, CA 2018 The Art of Resistance, Guest Lecturer, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA Artist Talk with Ibi Ibrahim and curator Lila Nazemian, The Poetry Project Space, Berlin Artist talk in Conversation with Samira Yamin, Women’s Center for Creative Work, Los Angeles, CA Culture Clash: panel host, discussion with Arshia Haq, Rema Ghuloum, and Gazelle Samizay Collage Artists Tackle Contemporary Issues, Kolaj Fest, New Orleans, LA Dismantling Patriarchy, Golden Thread Productions, Brava Theater Center, San Francisco, CA OCHI WWW.OCHIGALLERY.COM California State University, Los Angeles, Women’s Studies Guest Speaker 2016 Headscarves and Hymens, Women’s Center for Creative Work, Los Angeles, CA OCHI WWW.OCHIGALLERY.COM OCHI WWW.OCHIGALLERY.COM Los Angeles-based artist Yasmine Nasser Diaz can best be described as a collagist—not only of images clipped and rearranged, but also of heritages, cities, languages, and decades. Born in Chicago to Yemeni parents, the multidisciplinary artist makes works that explore the complexities of third-culture identity. Adolescence, not only as an age but as a conceptual stage of learning, is a recurrent subject of inquiry for the artist. In her ongoing “Bedroom” series, Diaz constructs immersive bedrooms for fictional two Arab American teenage sisters. The room is filled with journals, novels, makeup, and set in what is meant to be a 1990s Midwestern home. Fabrics play a vital role in her work. Diaz has recently begun a series of fiber etchings in which she applies acidic paste to velvet fabrics. The process allows the fabric’s cellulose fibers to dissolve, while the base silk-based mesh remains intact, creating patterns of opacity and transparency. In fashion, this treatment of fabric is called devoré, and harkens to a Yemeni style of dress (known as a dir’) that is reserved for married women. Following exhibitions at the Arab American Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and Ochi Projects in Los Angeles, Diaz recently installed her work, For Your Eyes Only, at NADA House on New York’s Governors Island (on view through August 1). We caught up with the artist at her Los Angeles studio to learn about the Instagram accounts she finds most inspiring and her impromptu studio dance parties for one. Yasmine Nasser Diaz’s For Your Eyes Only (2021). Courtesy of the artist and Ochi Projects. What are the most indispensable items in your studio and why? My wireless headphones and my X-Acto knives with plenty of fresh new blades on hand. Collage is at the heart of practice and I often make small, quick pieces to warm up when I get to the studio. What is the studio task on your agenda tomorrow that you are most looking forward to? OCHI WWW.OCHIGALLERY.COM Continuing to play with these textile collages. I love the early phase and newness of experimenting in a different direction. What kind of atmosphere do you prefer when you work? Do you listen to music or podcasts, or do you prefer silence? If I’m cleaning or reorganizing, which is an important and frequent studio ritual, I’ll listen to a podcast. If I’m in “process mode” I have about 30-plus playlists I rotate between. If I’m writing, I generally prefer total silence. What trait do you most admire in a work of art? I love seeing work that has a new or different approach to something very familiar. Sometimes it’s an unexpected use of humor or it’s a seemingly simple execution that brilliantly captures something very complex and nuanced. Yasmine Nasser Diaz at work in the studio, 2021. Courtesy of the artist. What trait do you most despise? Despise is a strong word… . What snack food could your studio not function without? Popcorn and tangerines. Who are your favorite artists, curators, or other thinkers to follow on social media right now? Simone Leigh’s Instagram feed is one of my favorites. There are so many other artists I could name, so I’ll just pick one. I’m a huge fan of Meriem Bennani’s animation videos. I love her use of unusual humor and fiction to explore very real and timely global events. It’s playful and smart work and often has a cheeky, mischievous quality. OCHI WWW.OCHIGALLERY.COM Yasmine Nasser Diaz at work in the studio, 2021.